were billeted, was one of the best billets they had been in for some
time. The great feature of this month's training was the sports. After
winning the Brigade Football and Cross Country Cups, the battalion won a
great triumph by obtaining the Divisional Cross Country Shield. This was
given to the unit which had the largest proportion of its ration strength
over the course in a certain time. The percentage obtained, 64 per cent.,
reflected the high state of efficiency to which the Battalion had now
attained. For this high standard, a large amount of credit was due to
R.S.M. G. Perry, D.C.M., who was unfortunately compelled by ill-health to
leave the Battalion at Houlle, and subsequently went home, after nearly
three years' active service. At his best on the parade ground and in his
lectures on the history of his Regiment, his influence continued to be
felt long after his departure, especially as he was succeeded by one whom
he had trained in soldiering, C.S.M. J. Taylor, of X Company.

During the first week in December the visit of officers to the line
disclosed the new sector to be taken over, which included Passchendaele
village, recently captured by the Canadians. A few days later the
Battalion entrained at Watten for Brandhoek, where it spent a short time
in a hut camp in Divisional reserve. From there it marched up through
Ypres to a camp just west of Potijze Wood, the scene of its first action
in April, 1915. After two days there a further move was made to the
forward area, into a number of shelters known as the Seine area. The next
step was to the front line, which consisted of a series of shell hole
positions on the Passchendaele Ridge. Not only were these uncomfortably
wet, but they were very difficult to locate in the dark, and many will
remember the trouble experienced in selecting the routes from the heap of
debris of what had once been the village church. Battalion Headquarters
were in a German pill-box known as Hamburg. Four days were spent in the
front line, and the Battalion then went to Divisional reserve again at